Wisdom, Ethics, and the Medical Professional
Short Definition
His work examines the role of practical wisdom in medical practice. The practical wisdom in medicine is about the goals that guide medicine and the vision of human flourishing that inspires these goals. The project also explores the extent to which the practice of professional conscientiousness should prevail over competing claims from patients or society.
Summary Points
- His work examines the role of practical wisdom in medical practice.
- The practical wisdom in medicine is about the goals that guide medicine and the vision of human flourishing that inspires these goals.
- The project also explores the extent to which the practice of professional conscientiousness should prevail over competing claims from patients or society.
- Joint decision-making between patients and physicians is influenced by a complex interaction of regulatory values arising from the ethical commitments and interests of patients, medical professionals, institutions and society.
In order to navigate through the ethical challenges of medical practice, clinicians need the practical wisdom that can distinguish, incorporate, and decide among the competing ethical claims that arise in the highly flexible clinical decision-making process.
- However, modern medical ethics emphasizes appendicological principles and subsequent assessments, emphasizes the ethics of virtue and strives to harmonize patients' autonomy with professional autonomy and its professional obligations to society.
The aim of this proposal is to develop a conceptual framework of practical wisdom for the medical professional that incorporates modern approaches to medical ethical reasoning, conscientious practice from professional and professional obligations to society.
Text from Wisdom Institute
Using Aristotle’s phronesis and Thomas Aquinas’ prudentia, this project examines the role of practical wisdom in medical practice. It explores the interrelationship and interdependence among virtue ethics, practical wisdom, and conscience, especially when moral agency is understood as requiring moral integrity. Practical wisdom in medicine that draws from phronesis and prudentia relates to the goals that direct medicine and the vision of human flourishing that inspires those goals. The project also explores the extent to which the professional’s conscientious practice should override competing claims from patients or society.
Wisdom, Ethics, and the Medical Professional
Shared decision-making between patients and physicians is influenced by a complex interplay of normative values that arise from the moral commitments and interests of patients, medical professionals, institutions, and society. In order to navigate through the ethical challenges of medical practice, clinicians need practical wisdom that can discern, integrate, and adjudicate between competing moral claims that arise in the highly malleable process of clinical decision-making. Such wisdom entails assessing the value of different ends and determining the best means to achieve them. However, contemporary medical ethics emphasizes deontological principles and consequentialist considerations, de-emphasizes virtue ethics, and struggles to harmonize patient autonomy (patient self-determination) with professional autonomy (conscientious practice) and the professional’s obligations to society. Little is known about how medical professionals integrate contrasting approaches to ethical reasoning and harmonize these approaches with their own conscientious practice and their perceived social obligations. The objective of this proposal is to develop a conceptual framework of practical wisdom for the medical professional that integrates contemporary approaches to medical ethical reasoning, conscientious practice by the professional, and professional obligations to society. This project will result in a 7-chapter manuscript intended for publication as a book. The anticipated impact of this work will be to provide a framework of wisdom for medical professionals that assists education in medical ethics and professionalism, informs approaches to clinical decision-making, speaks to matters of policy in healthcare institutions, and provides a conceptual framework for research investigating how wisdom influences clinical decision-making.
Dr. Kaldjian is reviewing traditional and contemporary literature on practical wisdom and virtue ethics in order to prepare conceptual groundwork for his manuscript project and organize specific content for its first chapter (Medical Practice, Virtue Ethics, and Wisdom). Based on the work related to Chapter 1, Dr. Kaldjian delivered a lecture entitled, “Wisdom, Integrity, and Faith in the Healing Professions”, on April 28, 2009 in New Haven, CT. He has also prepared an application for an Investigator-Initiated Research Grant to the Alzheimer’s Association, entitled “Dementia, Surrogate Decision Making, and Goals of Care.” This new research proposal is directly related to two content areas of his book project: goals of care (relevant to Chapters 1 and 6) and life-sustaining treatments for person with advanced dementia (Chapter 7). Dr. Kaldjian has received initial feedback from a university press about his proposal for a 7-chapter book.
https://wisdomcenter.uchicago.edu/about/project-1-defining-wisdom